The Feniton, Devon-based finishing firm opened its doors to BPIF members, customers and printers on Wednesday (22 June) in a bid to increase its profile in the industry.

Visitors were treated to a tour of the wiro- and spiral-binding specialist's facility, including a Kolbus KM600 PUR binding line which it installed last month.

The event also incorporated a south west regional meeting of the BPIF, at which Larkbeare managing director Neil Oakley became chairman for the region.

He said: "I think the visual aspect of us is very different to a lot of places, the more people we get to see what is going on here the better. We are doing so many things, we can sit and talk about it until we are blue in the face, but until people see it, it doesn't really register."

Woodward had attended the meeting, but also used the day to look around Larkbeare's facility, which she said was a fantastic showcase for an industry that can sometimes hide behind its bad news stories.

She said: "There is so much shadow over the industry from the bigger guys that are going through restructuring that we can miss the guys underneath the shadow that are just getting on with it.

"I think it was a great idea, a great event. Larkbeare is a very interesting family-run business that is thriving in a niche market and this event will have been a great benefit to them and many of their visitors. I bet there were people here today that saw some of the ways they were doing things and thought 'I can do that'."